"i didn't know the cure for the disease of images, but i believed in the healing power of stories."
-eugene fitzpatrick, bis ans ende der welt (1991)
my senior year in high school, i was obsessed with wim wenders' "until the end of the world" -- first because of the soundtrack, which i knew intimately by the time i finally saw the film itself. second, because it was probably the first foreign film i ever fell in love with. at two and a half hours, it was probably the longest film i had seen at that point. and it is basically two plots enjambed into one, as my journalism adviser [who taught film classes at the local uni] was wont to point out every time i talked about it.
the second of the two plots involves a technology that allows people to record their dreams. some of the characters become obsessed with their own dreams, watching them over & over on what would be the video equivalent of an ipod, until it's their turn to get hooked up to the dream recorder again. gene [sam neill] tries to help claire [solveig dommartin] cure her addiction by refusing to give her any more batteries, cutting her off cold turkey. he does offer her the book he's been writing, which is their story, the story of the film.
this story has stuck with me for many reasons, not the least of which is this: storytelling is basic to the human experience. it tends to override technology, advertising, and other human constructs. the web itself is a good example. there was a big commercial push, where everyone tried to set up a commercial site. now we're seeing the pendulum swing back towards personal expression. hence weblogs. hence the online comics i keep discovering, or having recommended. [riffner, i'm looking in your direction]
after we're done selling things to each other all day, we use what we've learned to talk about our lives.
my personal example is this: after a full day of freelance work on wednesday, i was computered out. i spent the last two nights looking for stories -- books, comics, radio, anything. i pulled the rules of attraction and mcsweeney's issue 11 out of the stacks that friends have loaned me the past couple of weeks. i listened to this american life via the internet at work [thanks, kate]. i went to border's to read chapters 6-10 of william gibson's pattern recognition -- which i refuse to actually buy until i have a bunch of spare time on my hands.
finally, i was drawn back into the web by electric sheep comics. the spiders is my new favorite online comic. it takes a long time to load, even with a broadband connection. but man, it is good. a perfect marriage of storytelling, digital art, and effective use of the web as a medium. with combat in afghanistan as a subject, a humanitarian philosophy, and the web itself as a phenomenon, it is one of the most compelling things i've read in months. it's very apropos.
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